Legislators seek to tie punitive damages to intent in wage law violations

As part of its fiscal 2012 budget plan, the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled a proposal this week to punish employers who fail to pay workers on time, but only if the payment delays are intentional and not the result of “innocent mistakes.”

The proposal comes just three years after most of the committee’s Democrats had rejected a similar plan pushed by Republicans and Gov. Deval L. Patrick and instead, backed a bill that would have imposed treble damages on employers who did not pay workers on time regardless of their intent or circumstances, the State House News reports.

“Treble damages can be a significant penalty, especially in cases involving multiple plaintiffs, and such damages are neither warranted nor fair in every case, particularly in situations where the wage and hour issues may be complex and uncertain and the employers relies, in good faith, on advice of counsel and guidance received from governmental authorities,” Patrick told the legislature in 2008.

The proposal is expected to be taken up during the House budget debate which begins April 25.

One comment

Ridiculous. Ignorance of the law is no excuse – and it should be the employer’s responsibility to learn how to pay its workers properly. Otherwise every case will turn into endless (and expensive) litigation over what the company knew and when it knew it – which employees can’t afford. If there’s no penalty, there’s no incentive to get it right the first time – you reward sloppiness at best (“I don’t need to bother to find out how to pay my employees correctly – I’ll wait for one to know enough to sue me”) and theft/involuntary loans at worst (“I get to use the money for as long as it takes an employee to discover what I’m doing is illegal and then plod through the litigation, and all I pay at the end is what I should have paid years ago and some interest.”
If I don’t know the speed limit can I pay a lower fine than if I know it?